Absence of mass leaders from Christian community worries Congress in Kerala

At a time when the BJP is making all-out efforts to make inroads into the Christian vote banks of Kerala, the absence of mass leaders from the Christian community seems to be a cause for concern for the Congress.

Party sources said that the recent meeting of the political affairs committee of the Congress had taken serious note of it and was working out plans to bring some young leaders from the Christian community to the forefront.

Former chief ministers A K Antony and Oommen Chandy are not active now owing to health and age-related issues. Kerala PCC working president P T Thomas passed away last year. Former union minister K V Thomas joined the CPM, former deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien is not into active politics now and former MP P C Chacko joined the NCP. At present, there are no big leaders from the Christian community in the party state leadership.

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Political observers point out that though most of the mass political leaders did not have any communal favouratisms, the political parties often ensured representation of all communities in the leaderships so as to please the community leaders.

"The BJP is now trying to become closer to the church leaders. Hence, the Congress required leaders who could personally liaison with the church leaders," said political observer C A Josukutty.

He said that the common people were not generally concerned about the political parties having members from their community, but the community leaders always wish to have members from the community in the leadership of political parties so that they could easily take up their issues.

During the last reconstitution of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, the Congress did a balancing act by appointing Kodikunnil Suresh, P T Thomas and T Siddique as working presidents. But P T Thomas died last year and a replacement for him was yet to be made.

Congress sources said that some young leaders who already hogged the limelight by taking up key issues in the Assembly were being considered by the party for prominent posts.

As per 2011 census, 18 per cent of Kerala's population consists of Christians. Though the Christian community used to generally favour the Congress, the CPM already made inroads into the Christian vote banks through various initiatives of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Now, that the BJP is also making attempts to make inroads into the Christian vote banks, the Congress finds itself in a desperate situation.